14 April 2008

Two movies, both with "Once in their titles...Once Were Warriors is a tale of domestic strife in New Zealand. I've seen few movies in the recent past that had as much impact as this one. A few months ago I read a thread on my favorite website, Fark, where readers were invited to list the movies that were so gross or unpleasant that they wished never to see them again. Of course I made a list and headed straight to Netflix to add a bunch of them. This was one of them, and it did not disappoint. It contains an unspeakable tragedy, but it somewhat redeemed by the mother's speech at the end. I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach after watching it. (New Zealand, which is often described as one of the most beautiful countries on the planet, sure is ugly in this. Their tourism people must have had a cow over this film!)On the other hand, Once is is a beautiful love story with characters to root for, a good story, and a realistic-- if not entirely satisfying ending. It's an adult relationship. By that I mean the writers avoid the typical boy-meets-girl, boy-and-girl-get-together, boy-and-girl-encounter-strife, love-wins-out-in-the-end convention so typical in the movies. Lots of good music in it, too.I highly recommend both-- though not as a double feature!

01 April 2008

20 January 2008

Some guy named David Armand miming to "Torn" by Natalie Imbruglia. He's hilarious, and isn't she a good sport, showing up halfway through it?YouTube pet peeve: Why can't their links be more descriptive of the videos' content? You can't tell what you are going to see until you load it and play it.

10 October 2007

23 July 2007

We spent the weekend with friends on the southern Oregon coast, and we took a side trip to the oh-so-cheesy Trees of Mystery in northern California on Saturday. One of the features of this tourist trap is a seven-minute trip in a cable tram thingie up to the top of a large hill. While we were waiting for our turn I overheard snippets of conversation between two couples behind us. One was from Holland and the other was (apparently) local. They chit-chatted about things to see and do in the area and I sorta tuned them out after a while. Suddenly, the female half of the local couple said, "So do you go to church in Holland?" The Dutch woman said, "No, we don't." The other couple then proceeded to lecture them on why they should be Christians. The victims of this tirade remained polite and non-confrontational, but I could hear their discomfort with the topic. At one point, the crusading husband said, loudly, "You just gotta love the lord!" I just about lost it there, but we were having such a fun weekend I didn't want to ruin it with a confrontation.So let me apologize to the visitors right now. Not all Americans are as rude as those two. Please don't let those two ignorant buffoons color your opinion of the rest of the U.S. Contrary to what they may think, this is a secular nation and there are many of us that are embarassed by the American Taliban. And forgive me for not speaking up. Enjoy the rest of your stay!